I always weigh myself at work. It's a professional scale and for quite a while I didn't have any scale at home. I try to do it shortly after I get to work. I work afternoon shift and I want to weigh myself before I go to eat supper. Today when I stepped on the scale, I was down another three pounds. I'm about 5'4" tall. When I started losing weight I weighed 250#. Today my weight was 201#. I've been struggling with my weight since I was an early teenager. Throughout high school I was trimmer and didn't have too hard a time keeping the weight off but once I got married (at age 19 the first time) and wasn't as active, I started to struggle to keep it off. After four pregnancies, I lost the battle. I started losing weight last November. Lost most of the weight by May. Since then I've only lost about 10 pounds. Hopefully the plateau has ended and I will be able to continue to lose more weight. Anyway... today I've very excited to have lost three pounds. :)

A couple of weeks ago I went clothes shopping. I hadn't done that in a long time. Over the last year I've lost almost 50 pounds and am hoping to lose some more so was putting off buying any clothes. But I really needed some jeans that weren't either full of holes or covered with paint. It was so great to actually get some new clothes. I also no longer had much for slightly dressy as they were all too big now. It's also so much more fun clothes shopping for smaller clothes. What I've also realized over the last couple of weeks that the new clothes make me look like I've lost even more weight. Another gratifying aspect is taking the clothes that are too big to St. Vinny's.

I teach a med education group at work. One of the aspects of the meds that we give on my unit is that there tends to be a weight gain. I often tell the patients that I can tell them what to do. That part is easy. What is hard is following the advice. I hate exercising! Not only is it not fun but it takes time away from the things that I do like to do. But I also know that I need to do it. Knowing myself, I know that if I have to go somewhere to do it, it won't get done. So I've had to set up a place in my house where I can get some exercise. I always advice the patients that they need to get to know themselves. What are their triggers, what are their weaknesses and what are their strengths. When you know those things then you can organize your house to help you stick to any plan that you set up. I know that I do not want to have chips and such in my house. I will eat them. Ice cream on the other hand doesn't bother me at all to leave alone. Pastries... a very major no-no. The other things that one really needs to eat healthily is a support person. I have several people at work who are encouraging. None live close enough to be an exercise partner but I'm working on that. Don't really like to do it with my hubby.

Gardening every summer has really helped me get some exercise. I've been making raised flowerbeds by hauling rocks from along one of the roads near here. Last year my hubby and I hauled a lot more than this year to get several gardens established. This year I kind of waited to see how things were looking. Then I also decided to do some landscaping with the rocks and make the front yard tiered above the side yard. It sloped before. So more rocks were needed. Next year we will be adding on to the back of the house and trenches will need to be dug. I plan on helping so that I can get some exercise that way. Once that is done and the patio off the shed is done, then I'll know better where I can put the rest of my flowerbeds. Flowerbeds and some of my plants can be checked out in my webpage http://www.webspawner.com/users/aprilsgarden03/. I'll try to put more of the general flowerbeds on there so that you can check them out. When I planned these beds, I did quite a bit of research on what would grow well where. I've never done that before. I never had the internet available before, either. I have a gardening journal of how everything looked to start with, any information about any plants I put in the ground, and then how things look each year. It helps to remember from year to year what I put in the ground and what kind of soil they need and everything.

I'm a bit disappointed tonight. I wanted to donate a hardanger doily that I have designed for a MDA Benefit tonight but I couldn't get it done in time. I did have a good time at the benefit, though. It was a wine tasting event with an auction and raffle. There weren't very many people there but it was still fun. It was great to get dressed up a bit. I haven't done that much lately. I needed to get my hair cut anyway so I scheduled it for today so that I wouldn't have to do my hair. That in itself felt great. Love to have my hair played with. I was laughing with my hairdresser that when my daughter's were little I used to have them play with my hair. They had fun and it felt great to me. Now they are adults and don't want to play with mom's hair.

I am feeling great about my bedroom. I have painted the bedroom and that is done. Now I have to cover the ceiling with fabric. I want to gather it along the edges so that it has a romantic look. Out of the same fabric I want to have a drape on each side of the bed. Even without the ceiling being done the room is looking so cool. I made a smaller bedroom into a dressing room so my room doesn't have any dressers in it. I want to make an amoire that will fit my walls (the side walls are only 4 feet high) to hold and hide the TV and I have to paint my night stands yet. I got new curtains for my window. I enjoy spending time in my bedroom now. Eventually I want to put a gas fireplace in it, too. I have one picked out but don't have the money right now. I also need to get a headboard and footboard for my bed. Even my hubby is impressed with it.

The trees are losing their leaves very quickly now. I always find that a bit depressing. I really don't like the snow and when the leaves are almost gone, it means it won't be long and we'll be getting snow. I hate being cold and I love the summer weather. Summer never lasts long enough for me. When I finally get to retire, I am moving somewhere warmer than here. Even if it is only to the lower peninsula where they still get snow just not as much and not for as long as we get. I do love the color at this time of the year, though. There is so much beauty to enjoy each time of the year if one just takes the time to look. Something that my hubby is learning now that we are into photo taking. There are so many little things that can improve one's mood or brighten the day but not always noticed. A nurse I used to work with made me much more aware of the little things. She had such a way of recognizing them.

Well, I have to go put a new kit together to get it ready to mail so I need to get busy. Never a dull moment. Or you could say... no rest for the weary (or wicked).

In the Beginning

I've wanted to write since I was a kid. I still have a story that I started in middle school. I never finished it but I've kept it just the same. About 15 years ago I started a mystery novel. I've worked on it off and on over the years. It isn't very good. But I had fun writing it. I used to get the magazine Writer's Digest. According to what I've read in it, I went about writing it correctly. I'm just not very good at expressing what I want to say. For my nursing degree I needed to take technical and report writing for one of my english courses. I did very well in that class. I've found I really like doing research. Mostly I like doing it here online but I don't mind going to the library. I don't like doing experiments, though.

I do believe in journals. I recommend them to patients all the time. Even those that can't express themselves very well or those that can't even read or write well can still use a journal to help them deal with events in their lives. I have found recently though that I haven't been expressing my feelings in my journal but using it more of a diary. Last night when I sat with my journal, I couldn't have told you what I was feeling. Or maybe I just didn't feel what I was feeling was worthy of writing it down.

Mostly lately I've been somewhat excited. I've been painting my bedroom and it's almost finished. I think it looks very cool. I did it in vertical stripes of a earthy light green in flat finish for 15 inches, deep purple in satin finish for 4 1/2 inches, and white in trim finish for 1 inch. The stripes went in this order, green, purple, white, purple, green. All the trim is in the white. I'm going to cover the ceiling with white sheerish fabric. My upstairs where the bedroom has dormer ceilings so two sides of the room has walls that only go up 4 feet. I want to gather the fabric along the center top and the shorter walls. Someone at work asked me how I was going to clean the fabric which is when I decided to attach the fabric the the ceiling with velcro. The only other thing I will have left to do is replace the carpet. Oh, I want to put in a vent-free gas fireplace on one of the shorter walls. The dressers are in another bedroom which I am using as a dressing room. I have a chair that I'm going to recover to match the purple of the room and I'm going to build a table to use for having tea and such in the room. I want to cover the table with 1/2 inch glass tile mosaic. When I get it all done, I'll try to put a picture of it on here.

The other thing that has me excited is designing hardanger. For those that don't know, hardanger is a Norwegian needlework. This past August I demonstrated hardanger at the Finn Grand Fest 2005 in Marquette, Michigan. When I knew I was going to do this, I decided that if I'm supposed to be this expert on hardanger, then I should try to design. Since it is mostly geometrical shapes, I thought that I should be able to do this. I started with a tablecloth for myself. It's not finished but I did get quite a bit of it done before the fest. I had a great time but I wanted something that if someone wanted to sit with me for a while and actually learn to do it, I would have something for them to work on. So I designed a small Christmas ornament in hardanger and sold it in kits. I didn't sell all the kits that I made so I've been selling them on ebay. From that I started designing more ornaments and making them into kits and selling them.

Well, I guess I've rambled enough for tonight.